Inspire Issue 6 Volume 2 Winter 2022

Interview
MEDICINE
Consultant paediatric neurologist
Dr Dipak Ram
do outpatient clinics which could be in Royal Manchester Children's
Hospital or outreach clinics in District General hospitals where we
sit with the local paediatricians and see cases together. This helps
with the education of general/community paediatricians too. Other
things during a typical week would be involvement in research. I am
part of some clinical trials and do work for this as an investigator.
Other roles part of my routine work include delivery of specialised
services because paediatric neurology is really complex and there
are so many subspecialties within paediatric neurology. I do some
work with specialised services in demyelination/multiple sclerosis
in children, Batten disease, metachromatic leukodystrophy, as
well as the inherited white matter disease service in the UK. These
specialised services are delivered as part of a multidisciplinary team
to try and improve services for patients with these rare conditions
across the UK.
There are a lot of opportunities for teaching and education for junior
doctors and medical students, which I'm involved with as part of my
role as a consultant. As you can imagine, the week is filled with lots
of interesting and different cases and it's that variety which is what
keeps me going.
What qualities make a good paediatric neurologist?
Introduction
I’m Dr Dipak Ram and I am a consultant paediatric neurologist at
Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. I am also the Royal College
of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) National Training Advisor
for paediatric neurology training. That involves overseeing the
paediatric neurology training across the whole of the UK as well as
recruiting new trainees into paediatric neurology posts across the
country. This role also involves supporting the trainees currently in
posts across the country and helping them transition to become
consultants. Another role I have is the British Paediatric Neurology
Association (BPNA) chair of the Cerebrovascular Interest Group and
this involves chairing a group of clinicians and health professionals
interested in paediatric neurovascular disorders and stroke and
helping to improve the services across the UK.
What does a typical week as a paediatric neurologist involve?
Most paediatric neurologists will have a slightly niche job plan based
on their area of expertise. I am predominantly a clinician so I am
patient facing most of the time and I have on-call weeks where I am
on site in Royal Manchester Children's Hospital and seeing patients
which come through the door with various paediatric neurological
conditions as well as emergencies. The referrals could come from the
general paediatrics team, A&E, paediatric intensive care, neonatal
intensive care, other specialties within the hospital, or district general
hospitals. This is really exciting and interesting because I see a whole
breadth of paediatric neurology conditions and keep learning on the
job and coming across conditions which I’ve never seen before - so
really fascinating work!
The on-call weeks are busy but full of learning as I mentioned, so
it's always really rewarding. On non on-call weeks, the roles could
be different for each paediatric neurologist but my role would be to
I think clear communication skills are really important because we deal
with really complex patients and, sometimes, this involves breaking
bad news to patients about rare diseases or neurodegenerative
conditions. It is important to have very clear communication skills and
also to be aware of how to build a rapport with patients and families.
Another important quality is teamworking within an MDT, which
I think is really integral because delivery of paediatric neurology
services is always by a team. It is really important to be a team player
and work well within an MDT. A lot of our work is delivered together
with other health professionals. For example; specialist nursing
staff, dietitians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech
and language therapists, community paediatricians, geneticists and
trainees are frequently part of our MDT meetings. All of these people
and many others are involved in MDT working and it's very important
for paediatric neurologists to work well within the team, but to also
have leadership skills so that you that we can make sure that we make
a robust MDT decision with a patient-centred approach.
When did you decide to become a paediatric neurologist?
When I was doing an SHO rotation in paediatric neurology, I completely
fell in love with the specialty! It was so unique and interesting, and
I realised that my consultant was still learning on the job despite
being a paediatric neurologist for over 20 years. I remember being
told that paediatric neurology is an ongoing and continuous learning
experience and I thought to myself: this is exactly what I want to do!
Every patient is completely unique despite them having the same
condition and I think that's what makes neurology fascinating. When
I did my SHO job, I remember there being many subspecialties within
paediatric neurology, which intrigued me. For example: epilepsy,
neuromuscular, neurovascular, movement disorders, neurogenetics
and acquired brain injury. All these different areas were so exciting
and there were so many innovations and new things happening in
different areas. I was really interested to see how these advances
were going to play out in the future. That’s when I decided I definitely
Inspire Student Health Sciences Research Journal | Winter 2022
36